Bucs' Copeland Quite A Sleeper

May 1, 1993|By Selena Roberts of The Sentinel Staff

TAMPA — No one tiptoed around Horace Copeland on draft day.

''We all paced. I stayed in the kitchen mostly, pacing in there,'' said Copeland's mother, Annette. ''We were all nervous. We were more worried than Horace. His (five) brothers and sisters were here. The neighbors were over. There was a lot going on in the house.

''But you know Horace. He slept through almost the whole thing.''

You know Horace: a graduate of Evans High School, former Miami Hurricanes wide receiver, the neighborhood favorite who used to do Ozzie Smith-type flips in the front yard for the kids.

He's the one who became Tampa Bay's sleeper pick of the NFL draft Sunday.

''I didn't want to be awake, because the draft, it will drive you crazy,'' said Copeland, who watched the draft from his home in Orlando but was in Tampa for the first day of minicamp Friday. ''My plan was to go to sleep, and when they called my name, I'd wake up.''

The alarm sounded in the fourth round when Tampa Bay selected him 104th overall, a round below where he was expected to go. But then there was his unexpectedly slow combine time, 4.66 seconds in the 40-yard dash. It was slow for Copeland, who ran as if he had gum on the soles of his cleats.

That's what Tampa Bay needs most: guys who move like their running barefoot across hot coals. In fact, the only two returning starters for the Bucs are the ambling Lawrence Dawsey and Courtney Hawkins.

''I know I have a shot,'' Copeland said. ''This is a good place for me. I'm close to home. I like the team. As soon as I heard, 'Tampa Bay selects Horace Copleand,' I was so excited, I could have swum the ocean and fought off the sharks.''

He has fought bigger battles and won. He was a Proposition 48 his freshman year at Miami, a label that instantly set Copeland apart from everyone else.

''Everyone else was playing football,'' said Lamar Thomas, another Miami receiver drafted by the Bucs in the fourth round. ''It was hard on him. But we kept encouraging him. A lot of people said he wouldn't make it.''

Copeland ignored those people and listened to himself.

''It was a very painful time,'' he said. ''I'll never forget it. It was like the hurricane that went through Miami to me. It tore me apart. But then I said, 'OK, let school give you a lift. You can do it.' ''

And he did. Copeland will receive his degree May 14.

''That's why the draft didn't worry me,'' said Copeland, a criminal justice major. ''I could sleep knowing that if I didn't get drafted, I had something else to fall back on. They can take football away, but they can't take my degree.''

The neighborhood hero has both right now.

''When he was drafted,'' Annette said, ''neighbors came over to the house, wanting his autograph.''